This is mainly a compilation of the visits to various holy places that we have been to recently. This blog started as a result of my wish to document these visits and help other like minded people to reach there easily, prepare them with some information about the place so that the experience will be enriched .

Monday, August 2, 2010

Singaperuman Koil

About 50 kms from Chennai on the GST road to Trichy after Guduvancheri, Marai malai nagar, is the suburb Singaperuman koil. In the middle of the town on the left hand side is the road indicating the Hanumanthapuram firing range of the police. Turn into this road and in less than half a Km you will see the temple’s right wall
this is a 1500 year old temple dedicated to Ugra narasimha and is called Pataladri temple. As per the Brahmanda puranam In a dense forest Jabali rishi was meditating on Narasimha to give darshan and the lord does so in his ugra roopa after killing Hiranyakashyapu.
When you enter the small road you come to the east facing main gate. The temple is carved out of a hillock in pallava style and to do pradakshinam you have to go around the whole hillock . Convenient steps are built here .
There is a south facing entrance to the Sannidhi with climbing of about 10 steps, a covered entrance beckons you inside to a spacious waiting hall which leads to the second hall where there is a queue regulated with ropes . There are separate sannidhis for Andal on the left and Ahobila valli thayar on the right of the Narasimha sannidhi.
The lord here is unique. He is red faced as the whole hillock is and about 8 feet tall in the sitting posture, with four hands, two of them holding Sudarsana and Panchajanya and the third in "Abaya Hastha" pose with the fourth pointing towards the earth. He wears the Salagrama and Sahasranama garlands . As if to show shiva and vishnu are the same he sports a third eye “Netri kann” which is shown during deeparadhanai.There is a huge crowd here during pradosham.
Behind the Ahobilla valli sannidhi there is a bit of the hillock projecting which all bhaktha’s embrace as it is the same hillock as the lord.
Once you leave the sanctum you go around the hillock as pradakshinam, the steps lead you to the entrance gate itself
( view of the Main sannidhi from behind)
View of the sannidhi complex as you are descending on the left of the temple .
The interesting thing here is that prasadam is Dosa with podi !! food for the soul and the stomach!!